Austria gears up for post-Brexit election battle

Austria was preparing Saturday for a re-run of May’s presidential election in a vote that gives Norbert Hofer another shot at becoming the EU’s first far-right president. Whether Hofer can beat independent ecologist Alexander Van der Bellen in September remains to be seen, particularly if after Britain’s Brexit vote Hofer takes the gamble of making a possible Austrian EU exit a big issue, experts said. The new vote follows a ruling by Austria’s highest court on Friday in which Van der Bellen’s narrow May 22 victory was declared null and void.